The blue skies are back this morning, and the sea is flat calm in the anchorage.  By the time I have breakfast and get suited up to go paddling, the wind has picked up outside the anchorage and the trees are dancing pretty good.  Now, the anemometer is reading 5 knots, gusting to 12 knots inside the anchorage.  I convince myself that since there aren’t any rain clouds around, the winds will probably fill in at 10 knots.  So, off I go.  But today, I headed in the opposite direction, just in case the wind does pipe up, I’ll have it behind me. 

I paddled all around the shoreline of Green Island.  I discovered quite a few small areas of sand and eel grass, which Dungeness crabs like.  We’ll have to try crabbing here next year.  And, there were many downed trees, with branches that are submerged at high water and are covered with mussels.  Minks love mussels, so I checked out all the fallen trees, hoping to spot a mink.  Finally, after about an hour-and-a-half of paddling, I started calling, “Here, Minky, Minky, Minky”, and I’ll be darned if a mink didn’t pop up.  By the time I got my camera out and focused, he ran for cover.  I waited to see if he’d come out again, and he did.  This time, he sat staring.  Unfortunately, the seas were so bouncy, that I couldn’t focus.  He teased me, running one way and then the other, stopping long enough to check me out, but not long enough for me to focus in on him.  I was so frustrated I could have screamed.  Oh, well.

The wind was starting to get really gusty, so I decided I’d better head back to the boat.  On my way, I spotted this red-throated loon.  He was a long-shot, but I was determined to come back with at least one photo.

It’s raining this morning, but by the time I’ve finished breakfast, the rain has stopped, so I decide to go for a paddle.

There are patches of blue sky to the north, which is encouraging.  However, there is a pretty good swell running.  I can’t figure that out, since there isn’t any wind.  So, I set out for the head of Illahae Inlet, where I want to check the eagle nests I found there last year.

Along the way I found a small creek I hadn’t noticed last year, which isn’t surprising given the fact that it’s just barely a trickle.   It’s probably just a seasonal creek.

I found the eagle nests, but no eagles.  Bummer.  About this time, the wind started building, so I turned around and headed back.  In the blink of an eye, the wind came up to 25 knots, gusting to 30 knots.  Suddenly, there were whitecaps everywhere.  I headed for the west shore, hoping to get smoother water, but the smooth water was gone.  Then the rain came, and it poured.  I was hoping that once the rain started, that the wind might back off a little, thinking that the wind was just pre-frontal wind.  But, no such luck.  The wind, if anything, got stronger, and the seas got uglier.  I started wondering if I should just look for somewhere to beach my kayak and wait for the wind to die down.  But then I thought about bears.   I kept paddling.  

I started focusing on short-term goals, making the next point, or the next fallen tree, because it seemed like I wasn’t making any headway.  But once I focused on making short distances, I could see that I was slowly making my way back to the boat.

When I finally made the last point and could see the boat, the wind died to about 10 knots, and the rain had lightened.    I was going to make it.  

Al made an outstanding dinner, and we taste-tested the Pinot Noir against the Gundlach Bundschu.  We still prefer the Gundlach Bundschu, but the Pinot Noir wasn’t bad.

We were up at 0500 hrs listening to the weather channel for conditions at West Sea Otter.  Swell height is now down to .8 meter at West Sea Otter.  The sea was calm at Egg Island, and there was no mention of fog.  Sounded great, so we’re underway by 0540 hrs. 

I put in a course for Miles Inlet, just in case things got ugly.  Winds were calm, seas were flat, and no hint of fog.  

The tide is ebbing, and the current is going with us.  And, since it was just 2 days after a spring tide, we had quite a kick. When we got to Richards Channel, we were making up to 10.4 knots of speed at times, and loving it.

Before we knew it, we were off Miles Inlet.  Slingsby Channel was still ebbing, but would turn to flood in about an hour.  Since there still wasn’t any wind, and the seas were quite tolerable,  we continued on, passed Slingsby Channel, headed for Cape Caution.  

By now, a light rain was falling.  The seas were still very tolerable as we rounded Cape Caution and headed across Smith Inlet.  

The swell was a bit higher as we crossed Smith Inlet, but still not bad, so we kept going.  I put in a course for Fury Cove.  However, when we got off Fury Cove, the going was so good we decided to continue on to Green Island Anchorage, in Fish Egg Inlet.

Once in the lee of Cape Calvert, the seas continued flattening out.  By 1230 hrs, we had our hook down in Green Island Anchorage.  We couldn’t believe our good fortune.  This is usually the worst passage all summer, but today it was a piece of cake.  

For the past few years we’ve been celebrating the safe rounding of Cape Caution with a good bottle of wine.  This year we brought 3 different wines to blind test, in order to determine which wine we preferred:  Gundlach Bundschu Merlot 2015, Cuda Ridge Merlot 2014, or Belle Glos Dairyman Pinot Noir 2016.  So, today, with Al’s delicious clam chowder, we tested the Merlots and determined that we both preferred the Gundlach Bundschu.  When we round Cape Caution in September, heading south, we’ll test the Pinot Noir.  

We were up at 0600 hrs and on our way to to Blunden Harbour by 0630 hrs.  Wind, sea and current conditions were perfect, and we had an easy crossing of Queen Charlotte Strait.  By 0930 hrs, we had our hook down in Blunden.  The anchorage was completely empty.  Nice.

Spent the day taking showers and resting up for our next passage, which could, if conditions are right, involve the rounding of the dreaded Cape Caution.

At 2200 hrs, we listened to the marine weather forecast for McGinnis to Pine Island.  They’re forecasting light winds in the morning, building to 10-15 knots in the afternoon.   No fog was mentioned.  West Sea Otter was reporting a swell height of 1 meter.  Sounds perfect!

Thinking that internet traffic might be less, early in the morning, I got up at 0500 hrs to try posting again.  And, sure enough, my first post went right through.  Maybe there’s hope after all.  I already had the text and photos, so all I had to do was upload the text for the appropriate day, locate the photos that went with that day’s text,  upload each photo, one at a time to the WordPress image gallery, which took forever, and then insert them one by one in the appropriate place in the text.  

While I was uploading posts, Al did all the provisioning, except for fruit, which I needed to do.  By the time he got back from the market, the WiFi signal had deteriorated to the point where I couldn’t do any posting.  So, while I rinsed and packaged all of the fresh vegetables, Al made a scrumptious prawn dinner.  

As soon as I’d washed the dishes, I headed to the market for fruit.  It was my lucky day.  They had a huge sale on the most  beautiful mangos.  I had to restrain myself from buying more than we could eat before they became over-ripe.  They also had nice kiwis, Fuji apples, green bananas, and pears. 

When I got back to the boat, I was storing all the fruit, when I looked out the window and saw one jet ski after another entering the marina…..eight of them!  You never see jet skis up here, and here were eight of them.  Where on earth did they come from?

It was raining and they looked soaked. 

They were milling around, getting their mooring lines out.  This guy was so intent on finding his mooring lines that he almost ran right into a boat tied to the dock.

According to the manager of the marina, these guys pay $5,000 each for the privilege of riding these jet skis from Seattle to Juneau, Alaska.  And, apparently, this excursion company operates all over the world.  You can pay to ride a jet ski across the north Atlantic, or the Bering Sea….all those fun places.  Amazing.  I would have to say these guys looked whipped.  They walked like they’d been riding a horse for days.  And this has been the easy part of their trip to Alaska.  Wahoo!

Well, that was exciting.  Now, I’ve got to see if I can upload any more posts.  Well, I was able to connect to the internet, and I was able to post again.  That lasted for about 3 hours.  Then, a megayacht came in and tied up right behind us.  Instantly, the WiFi connection was gone.  I kept trying until about 2000 hrs, when I gave up and watched a DVD movie.

Around 2230 hrs, I decided to try to connect to WiFi one last time before going to bed.  Well, to my surprise, it was back.  How can that be?  Well, I finally decided that the people on the megayacht must have been using something electronic that prevented me from connecting, and when they turned it off and went to bed, I had a WiFi connection again.  

So, I was able to upload posts for May 3 thru May 19 and write the email notice to 50 people, before falling into bed at 1300 hrs.

By 0630 hrs, we are underway for Port McNeill, and making good time.  Queen Charlotte Strait is flat calm and there isn’t any fog.  We can’t believe our good fortune.  When we are an hour out, we call the marina to see if they have a spot for us, and they do.  Yay!  Unfortunately, the spot they assign us is so far away from the router that the WiFi signal is sketchy at best.  And, to compound the problem, we have a couple of megayachts tied up just behind us, which are  blocking the signal.  I can connect and check email, but I can’t upload posts to my blog.  Maybe there isn’t enough bandwidth.  

Well, since I couldn’t post to my blog, I decided to do the laundry.  This is our last chance to do laundry until we get to Ocean Falls, about 3 weeks from now.  It took me 3 hours to do the laundry, but when I got back to the boat, Al had dinner waiting for me…delicious Sunday pizza.

After dinner, I tried posting to my blog again.  Still no luck.  This was not looking good.  I went ahead and watched my DVD movie at 2000 hrs.  When my movie was over at 2200 hrs, I decided to try posting one last time.  Well, persistence pays off.  It was slow going, however.  I was up until 0200 hrs, and was only able to upload the posts for May 3-4.

Storm clouds moved in last night.  This morning there’s a fine mist falling as Al goes out to pick up the prawn trap.  He brings back 138 prawns.  A lot of them are just the right size for prawn cocktails, so we each enjoy a delicious cocktail before dinner.  I’m going to miss the prawns when we leave.  And, it looks like we’ll be leaving at slack tide, which will be at 1319 hrs this afternoon.

At 1300 hrs, Al pulled the anchor and we headed out to Cullen Harbour, which is just outside Booker Passage.  The wind is blowing too hard to leave for Port McNeill this afternoon, so we’ll wait until morning when the wind is supposed to be light. Al called North Island Marina to reserve space at the dock, but they were maxed out.  Hopefully, some boats will leave before we arrive there tomorrow morning.  

We discover that Cullen Harbour, in a spring tide, is not the best place to be.  Even though the wind is light, there’s an uncomfortable swell that rolled the boat back and forth all night. 

It’s another beautiful day in paradise.  I headed for the entrance this morning, looking for birds.  On my way there, I heard the buzz of Al’s outboard and saw him heading out to pull the prawn trap.  So, I paddled a little faster, hoping to see a trap full of prawns.  I didn’t quite make it in time to see him pull the trap, but it was just as well, because he only had 61 prawns, and all of them were small.

Al hadn’t put the trap down in the same spot as yesterday, thinking he’d check out another area.  Bad idea, as it turned out.  Today, he’s setting the trap down where it was yesterday.

I continued on, paddling toward the extreme southwest cove, just because I’d never paddled there before.  Along the way I spotted this very old tree.  The main trunk was huge, and growing from the main trunk were many new trunks.  This tree reminded me of “The Wild Trees,” a fascinating book I read last year.

At the head of the southwest cove there were quite a few very large trees that had washed up on the shore.  I found the roots of this particular tree interesting.  The boulders that the trees roots grew around are still trapped in the root system of this big guy.

Al called me on the VHF to tell me I’d missed a bear on the beach behind the boat.  Oh, well.  Maybe he’ll be back tomorrow.

I did manage to get a shot of this eagle on beach.  I’d watched him dive for a fish and miss.  You can tell he’s not very happy about it.

When I got back to the boat, Al had cooked the prawns he caught today.    All I had to do was peel them while he put together another delicious dinner featuring pasta, pesto and prawns.

I got up early this morning, hoping to get out paddling before the wind came up.  Once again, the fog had settled in during the night, and was just now lifting.  I paddled for over two hours.  It was an easy paddle without the wind, but I didn’t see any bears, and the only merganser I saw was flying overhead.  Very disappointing.  

On my way back to the boat I took a few shots of things that appealed to me, because of the lighting.

When Al pulled the prawn trap this morning, he had 110 big ones.  Yay!

The prawns were absolutely scrumptious tossed with pesto and pasta.  Yummmm.

Fog crept in during the night and is just beginning to lift a bit as we pull the anchor, headed for Booker Lagoon, where we’re hoping to get the first prawns of the season.  We’re having to leave early so that we will arrive at Booker Passage, the very narrow entrance to Booker Lagoon, at slack tide.  The seas are flat calm.

We arrived at Booker a little early for slack tide, so we anchored in Cullen Harbour and had breakfast.   About 30 minutes before slack, a dive boat sped by us, headed for the entrance.  It’s hard to believe, but divers seem to fancy Booker Passage.  At slack tide, we pulled the anchor and headed for the entrance. We found the dive boat anchored just inside the entrance, with a diver in the water. These people are crazy!  We were practically in the trees trying to maneuver passed them.

There were no boats inside the lagoon.  We had the whole place to ourselves.  Al said, “I guess Booker isn’t so popular anymore.”  Well, about an hour later, a whole flotilla arrived.  This was the lead boat.

With all the various coves in the lagoon to choose from, this guy anchored just ahead of us.  Then four of his pals arrived and rafted to him.  “Jubilación” is on the far left, just behind the raft.

We lowered the dinghy, first thing, so that Al could set the prawn trap.  I’m really looking forward to our first prawns of the season.  

Late afternoon,  I spotted some mergansers swimming along the shore.  As you can see, they were a little too far away for decent shots.

I decided to go for a paddle, hoping to catch up with the mergansers.  While I was suiting up, Al said, “Look.  There’s a bear on the beach.”  So, I grabbed my camera and headed for shore.  The wind was blowing against the tide, creating very choppy seas.  I took lots of photos, but they were all throwaways, except for this one, which isn’t exactly in focus, but it’s the best I could do.  Very frustrating.

The bear eventually saw me and headed for the trees.  So, I paddled in the direction he was headed, hoping he would appear again in the next cove.  Paddling with all that chop and wind was not fun, but I persevered for about an hour and then gave up and headed downwind, back to the boat.